# What conspiracy theory about the Pandemic do you think is plausible? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [May 24, 2021, 2:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-conspiracy-theory-about-the-pandemic-do-you-think-is-plausible/942789 "2021-05-24T14:27:32Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 15\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Riemann](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/riemann/32/3133_2.png) [@Riemann](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Riemann)\ **Post date:** [May 27, 2021, 4:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-conspiracy-theory-about-the-pandemic-do-you-think-is-plausible/942789/41 "2021-05-27T16:36:15Z")
And do you think workers involved with the lab never leave the lab? They live in Wuhan. ---
**Author:** ![dtilque](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/d6d6ee/32.png) [@dtilque](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dtilque)\ **Post date:** [May 28, 2021, 2:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-conspiracy-theory-about-the-pandemic-do-you-think-is-plausible/942789/42 "2021-05-28T02:32:07Z")
My understanding is that what made the story mainstream was a report that a few (3?) people who worked at the lab came down with something that could have been COVID before it was recognized. In October 2019, I think. ---
**Author:** ![Jackmannii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jackmannii/32/311_2.png) [@Jackmannii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jackmannii)\ **Post date:** [May 29, 2021, 7:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-conspiracy-theory-about-the-pandemic-do-you-think-is-plausible/942789/43 "2021-05-29T19:40:09Z")
I acquired a cutting of a fig tree (the variety “Wuhan”) over the winter. It has grown out pretty well but seems to have a virus. Should I be concerned?\* \*the vast majority of cultivated figs are at least carriers of FMV (fig mosaic virus) which can cause light and dark green areas on leaves but generally doesn’t affect the vitality of plants or the harvest. ---
**Author:** ![Riemann](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/riemann/32/3133_2.png) [@Riemann](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Riemann)\ **Post date:** [May 29, 2021, 8:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-conspiracy-theory-about-the-pandemic-do-you-think-is-plausible/942789/44 "2021-05-29T20:45:03Z")
You’ll have to explain what point you think you’re making, it’s too subtle for me. ---
**Author:** ![Jackmannii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jackmannii/32/311_2.png) [@Jackmannii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jackmannii)\ **Post date:** [May 29, 2021, 11:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-conspiracy-theory-about-the-pandemic-do-you-think-is-plausible/942789/45 "2021-05-29T23:45:08Z")
It was a humorous aside. I’ll explain “humor” to you in another thread. ---
**Author:** ![mordecaiB](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mordecaib/32/7725_2.png) [@mordecaiB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mordecaiB)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2021, 3:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-conspiracy-theory-about-the-pandemic-do-you-think-is-plausible/942789/46 "2021-06-01T03:46:30Z")
Little late to the thread, but I’ll throw one out there. I don’t think Trump ever had covid. I think he had another of his whatever is wrong with him attacks, like when he went to Walter Reed in the middle of the night to “finish his physical.” I’ve never had a physical that I had to do over two days, and I don’t think it’s likely the president’s doctors forgot to do a blood draw on him. If the drugs they gave him can make a 75 year old obese man have such a mild case of covid that he supposedly never even stopped working, they should have been sharing that with all the old folks that were dropping like flies. I also think if Trump had covid, he would have refused to be vaccinated, or at least not publicly admit it. The manly he-man, vaccination refusing, hero image would have played well with all the anti-mask/anti-vaccination people in his crowd. ---
**Author:** ![Brayne\_Ded](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e9bcb4/32.png) [@Brayne\_Ded](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Brayne_Ded)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2021, 8:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-conspiracy-theory-about-the-pandemic-do-you-think-is-plausible/942789/47 "2021-06-01T08:37:36Z")
The lab escape theory: two days ago I saw a German source repeating a report in a medial publication that the COVID virus has characteristics that indicate it is a gene-manipulated virus that originated in bats. Gene manipulation can only be done in laboratories, but don’t expect the PRC to be overly helpful in proving or disproving this theory. ---
**Author:** ![Jackmannii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jackmannii/32/311_2.png) [@Jackmannii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jackmannii)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2021, 11:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-conspiracy-theory-about-the-pandemic-do-you-think-is-plausible/942789/48 "2021-06-02T23:44:03Z")
While accidental release is unlikely compared to a wild source, the “engineered” theory is way more dubious. Analysis of genetic sequences of Covid-19 weighs heavily against such an event. "In addition to the claim that a naturally evolved virus escaped from a lab by mistake, some conspiracy theories have [posited](https://slate.com/technology/2020/02/coronavirus-bioweapon-conspiracy-theories.html) that SARS-CoV-2 was genetically engineered. In fact, researchers throughout the world, including in the US and China, have conducted research involving the creation of [experimentally engineered](https://www.the-scientist.com/news-opinion/lab-made-coronavirus-triggers-debate-34502?archived_content=9BmGYHLCH6vLGNdd9YzYFAqV8S3Xw3L5) hybrid coronaviruses. But there is no evidence that SARS-CoV-2 was genetically engineered, says (Dimitrios Paraskevis, whose [genomic analysis](https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.01.26.920249v1.full) of the new virus was reported as a preprint in January. RNA viruses, which include coronaviruses, “accumulate mutations at a rate one million times faster than human DNA [does]. . . . It gives them the ability to survive against an immune response,” Paraskevis says. While the new coronavirus does have some genetic differences to other known viruses due to mutations, “there’s no evidence that this is the result of a human experiment,” he says, adding that if the virus were engineered, scientists would expect to see additional genetic material in its genome. For example, an early [_bioRxiv_](http://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.01.30.927871v1.full) preprint on SARS-CoV-2 found HIV-like genetic sequences, but online commenters pointed out that “the findings were at most a coincidence” and that research has since been retracted, reports [_STAT_](https://www.statnews.com/2020/02/03/retraction-faulty-coronavirus-paper-good-moment-for-science/)." > **[Theory that Coronavirus Escaped from a Lab Lacks Evidence](https://www.the-scientist.com/news-opinion/theory-that-coronavirus-escaped-from-a-lab-lacks-evidence-67229)** > > The pathogen appears to have come from wild animals, virologists say, and there are no signs of genetic manipulation in the SARS-CoV-2 genome. > **[Did coronavirus come from a lab?](https://www.newscientist.com/definition/coronavirus-come-lab/)** > > The coronavirus is not a bioweapon and most likely originated in animals. However, whether the virus may have leaked from a lab is also being investigated. ---
**Author:** ![China\_Guy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/779978/32.png) [@China\_Guy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/China_Guy)\ **Post date:** [June 5, 2021, 1:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-conspiracy-theory-about-the-pandemic-do-you-think-is-plausible/942789/49 "2021-06-05T01:25:46Z")
I just relayed the counter conspiracy theory that has been widely promulgated across the Chinese blog-o-sphere. It’s a conspiracy theory and I’m not vouching for the validity nor do I personally think it is plausible. But, on a website fighting ignorance, it does no harm to highlight that teh this has at least as much credibility within China as the lab leak theory has in the US. Either way, neither has anything more than circumstantial evidence at this point. And just for fun. For those CT folks that believe China deliberately unleashed this. Why would China have unleashed in what is effectively the Chicago of China (central transportation and critical global manufacturing center)? Instead, this could have been unleashed in one of the impoverished 5 million population city in an impoverished province that would not could have been shut down much less painlessly. Or better yet, could have been unleashed in Urumqi or Kashgar, the two major cities in Xinjiang Province, home to the Uighurs… ---
**Author:** ![dtilque](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/d6d6ee/32.png) [@dtilque](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dtilque)\ **Post date:** [June 5, 2021, 1:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-conspiracy-theory-about-the-pandemic-do-you-think-is-plausible/942789/50 "2021-06-05T01:32:48Z")
If deliberately released, why do that in China? It would have been easy enough to release it in some other country. ---
**Author:** ![nearwildheaven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/90db22/32.png) [@nearwildheaven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nearwildheaven)\ **Post date:** [June 5, 2021, 3:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-conspiracy-theory-about-the-pandemic-do-you-think-is-plausible/942789/51 "2021-06-05T03:55:41Z")
I speculated some variation of this all along. Of course, I have no way of knowing whether or not it is true. > [@A theory I saw about how COVID may have escaped from the Wuhan lab](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-theory-i-saw-about-how-covid-may-have-escaped-from-the-wuhan-lab/933082): > > I’m not saying I believe COVID was made in a lab, although we do all know that it was being researched in and around Wuhan and this is a not-unlikely IMNSHO theory as to how the virus may have escaped. Here goes. This person believes that a lab worker may have attempted to supplement their income by selling sacrificed lab animals to a wet market vendor or other butcher (without, of course, telling them the truth about where the animals came from) and things went from there. It sounds as plaus… ---
**Author:** ![elfkin477](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/a9a28c/32.png) [@elfkin477](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elfkin477)\ **Post date:** [June 5, 2021, 5:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-conspiracy-theory-about-the-pandemic-do-you-think-is-plausible/942789/52 "2021-06-05T05:33:35Z")
> [@Jackmannii](#): > > Most plausible to me is that a legion of antivaxers, libertarians, conspiracy theorists and generalized nutbags with the critical thinking capacity of a centipede are conspiring to prolong the pandemic for as long as possible, so that they can continue to scatter their mental feces all over social media. This blurs the line between CT and ‘duh, of course.’ ---
**Author:** ![Smapti](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/smapti/32/17938_2.png) [@Smapti](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smapti)\ **Post date:** [June 5, 2021, 5:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-conspiracy-theory-about-the-pandemic-do-you-think-is-plausible/942789/53 "2021-06-05T05:38:42Z")
> [@mordecaiB](#): > > Little late to the thread, but I’ll throw one out there. I don’t think Trump ever had covid There’s absolutely no way Loser Donald’s ego would ever have allowed him to pretend to be sick. We’re talking about a man who associates illness with weakness, is pathologically afraid of doctors, got vaccinated in secret because he didn’t want to be seen getting a shot in front of a TV camera, believed that there wouldn’t be cases if we weren’t testing people, and paid off a guy to write a letter he personally dictated about how he was the healthiest person ever. He’s the guy in the zombie movie who hides his bite mark from the other survivors. If it weren’t for Hope Hicks testing positive he wouldn’t have had to acknowledge he’d caught it and he would’ve tried to work through it until he collapsed at the podium during one of his rambles. ---
**Author:** ![mordecaiB](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mordecaib/32/7725_2.png) [@mordecaiB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mordecaiB)\ **Post date:** [June 5, 2021, 6:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-conspiracy-theory-about-the-pandemic-do-you-think-is-plausible/942789/54 "2021-06-05T06:08:13Z")
Stop throwing logic at my conspiracy theories! I thought this up myself and I’m determined not to let facts get in the way. My point was, he would rather be seen as the tough guy that beat covid in xdays, than to admit he had a fit or seizure or whatever. Beating covid for him confirms his he-man toughness _and_ that covid was just like a cold so no need to mask up or close down businesses. Win-win for him to republicans. ---
**Author:** ![Smapti](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/smapti/32/17938_2.png) [@Smapti](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smapti)\ **Post date:** [June 5, 2021, 6:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-conspiracy-theory-about-the-pandemic-do-you-think-is-plausible/942789/55 "2021-06-05T06:10:59Z")
> [@mordecaiB](#): > > My point was, he would rather be seen as the tough guy that beat covid in xdays, than to admit he had a fit or seizure or whatever. Beating covid for him confirms his he-man toughness _and_ that covid was just like a cold so no need to mask up or close down businesses. Which would still have required him to admit having covid, which in his eyes would make him weak and a loser. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-conspiracy-theory-about-the-pandemic-do-you-think-is-plausible/942789.md?page=2)